The Account of Quss ibn Sāʿidah al-Iyādī (1)

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn Sahl al-Kharāʾiṭī relates in his book “Hawātif al-Jinān” (2):

ʿAlī ibn Dāwūd al-Qanṭarī narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to him; Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Mashriqī narrated to me, from Abū al-Ḥārith al-Warrāq, from Thawr ibn Yazīd, from Murriq al-ʿIjlī, from ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit who said:

When the delegation of the tribe of Iyād came to the Prophet ﷺ, he said, “O delegation of Iyād, what has become of Quss ibn Sāʿidah al-Iyādī?” They replied, “He has died, O Messenger of Allah.”

He said, “I once witnessed him at the ʿUkāẓ market, riding a red camel, speaking words both wondrous and captivating, yet I cannot now recall them.”

A Bedouin from the edge of the gathering stood up and said, “I remember them, O Messenger of Allah.” The Prophet ﷺ was pleased.

He said: Quss was at the ʿUkāẓ market on a red camel, proclaiming:

“O people, gather round! Whoever has gone is gone, and everything that is coming will surely come. A pitch-black night, a sky full of constellations, a surging sea, glittering stars, immovable mountains, and rivers that flow!

In the heaven is a message, and on the earth are signs to heed. Why do I see people depart and die, (4) never to return? Have they been content to stay and so remained, or have they been left and fallen asleep?

Quss swears by Allah—an oath in which there is no doubt—that with Allah there is a religion more pleasing than the one you now follow, [though his speech was somewhat prolonged]. (5)”

He then recited:

(From the mujawzaʾ form of al-Kāmil)

Among the first who passed away, in bygone ages, lies our sight;

I saw the pathways leading to death, with no return to life’s delight;

I saw my people toward them go, both lowly folk and those of might;

No one who left returns to you, nor can the rest evade the plight;

I knew for certain that, in time, to where they went I too must flight. (6)